


Experiment #7209

by revampired



Category: Yuri!!! on Ice (Anime)
Genre: Aftermath of Violence, Angst, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Angst with a Happy Ending, Avian Au, Avian Katsuki Yuuri, Clinical Descriptions of Torture/Experimentation, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Evil Scientists - Freeform, Human Experimentation, Hurt Katsuki Yuuri, Hurt/Comfort, Injury Recovery, M/M, Major Character Injury, Past Abuse, Past Torture, Poisoning, Protective Victor Nikiforov, Wingfic, mentions of animal abuse
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-11
Updated: 2019-03-11
Packaged: 2019-11-15 02:32:38
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,804
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18064886
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/revampired/pseuds/revampired
Summary: Avian Katsuki Yuuri has been a victim of experimentation his entire life.After so many years, exhausted and ill, he's not sure what to expect when he's abruptly sold to a new buyer, this time a part of an underground crime syndicate.But there's something familiar about this buyer - and perhaps the deal he's made isn't quite what it seems.





	Experiment #7209

**Author's Note:**

> Heyo sorry to those of you who follow me on tumblr - this isn't new material, it's just me posting a tumblr prompt onto ao3. :P 
> 
> This was actually written in response to the whumpy prompt "poisoned lab rat given as a gift" haha, and avian AU seemed like the most obvious choice, since I read maximum ride as a kid I guess. 
> 
> Just a quick warning that some of the violence is mentioned to have happened when Yuuri was a kid. Other than that, enjoy some real lit hurt/comfort content.

The avian is beautiful, like something out of a fantasy. His hair is a long, luscious raven-black, his eyes shimmering like amber. His wings are a rich mahogany brown, speckled with golden flecks, soft down feathers clustered around his back. His hands, curled into padded claws, hang limply by his sides.

The seller, a slimy fellow by the name of Schlenk, caresses his cheek delicately. The color is pallid, sallow – even his beauty can’t hide the hue of sickness lingering in the avian’s slumped posture, his limp wings.

“I must say,” Victor Nikiforov murmurs, lips curled into a hint of a sneer, “If this is your normal quality of product, I’m not impressed.”

The avian twitches, just a little, at the sound of Victor’s voice, but he stays staring at his shiny black shoes, freshly polished.

Schlenk’s hands, slick with sweat, small and fat with pockets of skin bulging over too-tight golden rings, clench and unclench, betraying his nervousness. He licks his thin lips, speaking with a harsh accent.

“All imperfections can be fixed postmortem,” he says, swallowing. “I assure you, his body will be of the utmost importance. I’m imagining… His body segmented, used to advance science on humans. His muscles, definitely, plastinated and propped up in a display for our students to study – his bones, so light, split in two to show the hollow pouches that help him fly. His wings – you won’t find a specimen with such rich coloring. Don’t mind the breaks, though, they’ve healed over – we wanted to see if both were necessary for flight.”

The avian’s breath hitches, but Schlenk continues on, “Of course, the skin is imperfect.” He grabs one of the avian’s arms, ignoring his low whimper, and turns out the crook of his elbow. “This specimen was most useful in epidemiology tests. And,” he crouches down, lip curled in displeasure, and snaps on a latex glove, as though the thought of touching the creature was distasteful. He opens one of the avian’s eyes wide, prodding indelicately at the bloodshot edge of it, “I’m afraid he didn’t respond very well to being injected with a live specimen of creeping blindness. You see-”

“Is he blind?” Victor cuts him off, sinking to his knees before the avian. Their eyes meet for the first time, and the creature makes a low, keening noise.

“Shut up,” Schlenk snaps, kicking him in the ribs. The avian’s breath leaves him in a sharp _oof_ , and he shudders and slumps forward, and Victor’s face goes very, very blank. Schlenk turns to Victor, dabbing at his sweaty brow with his gloved hands. “Ah, no, of course not. Well, just a little, in the one eye, but that too might be useful on display…”

“Tell me,” Victor murmurs, standing again, hands running deceptively gently through the avian’s black hair, “How does one go from being a top researcher at one of the finest biological facilities in Europe to selling a highly valuable research specimen to the mob?”

“Ah, well,” Schlenk stammers, licking his lips again, “Times are hard, f-funding is tough right now, I have mouths to feed-”

“You’re divorced,” Victor cuts him off, sharply. “Your wife left you because you beat her and your children.” He taps his lips, smiling softly. “I think not. Perhaps your penchant for sadism cost you a valuable research position? To many live vivisections on mice, on chimpanzees, on your humanoid specimens?”

Schlenk swallows, “They’re just animals, I got so much useful data-”

Victor barrels on, “So you joined a different organization, one that specialized in avians, one outside the realm of international law. But they needed your work to have a _purpose_ , cruel as it was, and you just wanted to tear things apart. So you agreed to meet with me, to take one of their dying specimens and sell it, so you could set up a lab of your own. I know your type.”

He inches ever closer to Schlenk, who sweats profusely, now, shaking as Victor’s large stature looms over him. Victor takes one of his own hands, gloved, silk, and cups Schlenk’s face.

“Is he microchipped?” Victor murmurs.

“Y-yes,” Schlenk stammers. “But it’s easy to remove. It may damage the arm, but he’ll be dead soon anyway-”

“Is the microchip a selenium oxide?” Victor says, voice soft as it is sharp, _hungry_.

Schlenk blinks. “Of – of course. The standard issue ones could be tracked, so I replaced – _urk_!”

Victor’s gloved hands close around his throat, sharp nails digging in to the soft flesh.

“Thank you for the gift,” he whispers. “Though I can only hope we’ve gotten to him before the poison’s taken over completely.”

“Gift?” Schlenk chokes, “But, you said you had the money, you showed it to me-”

Victor drops him, and he sinks to his knees beside the shivering avian. Victor reaches down, eyes softening as he stares at the pale, sallow face, the dull eyes. He takes off a silken glove, revealing clawed, curved talons, and runs his hand gently along the avian’s soft cheeks.

“Hello, Yuuri,” he murmurs, eyes crinkling with sadness. “Do you remember me?”

Schlenk shrieks, scrambling to his feet. “You,” he gasps, “You’re one of them, you’re _him_ , the one who’s been k-killing people-”

He reaches for his belt, desperately, and lets out a low whimper when he remembers giving his gun to a guard at the beginning of their meeting-

“Mila,” Victor says, eyes not leaving Yuuri’s, “Georgi. Kill him.”

There’s the sound of swooping, beating wings, a long, drawn out shriek, and then nothing.

* * *

 

_They were running. Too afraid to fly, knowing they’d be seen, Yuuri and Victor ran, hand in hand, down curving mountain slopes and through thickets of trees. Their breath made clouds in the freezing winter air, the light shirt and pants allowed to them barely enough to keep the wind from biting through to their bodies._

_They’d escaped. Together, they’d escaped, after years and years of experiments and torture, forced to run through mazes again and again, suffer through electric shocks, sit in freezing, icy cold until their fingers and toes and wings turned numb and stiff and painful – no one to wipe the tears from their little faces in the dead of night as they pleaded with the dark for it to end._

_Just the two of them, clinging to each other, weeping when they were ripped apart for separate experiments, weeping when they were tortured together, the scientists wanting to see who could run faster, who could fly longer, their legs chained to the wall to prevent them from escaping._

_No one spoke to them, and yet they learned to speak. They practiced with each other, sounding the words out again and again, recreating the symbols that made up the signs in the facility._ Hazard. Electricity. Safety glasses required.

_Their hair fluttered behind them, Victor’s white and Yuuri’s black, Yuuri’s brown wings and Victor’s pale yellow. In the first town they found, they huddled beneath their wings for warmth, they snuck food from a trash bin outside a food market. Not wanting to stay in the same place for too long, they hid out in the hay bales of a barn for the night, listening to the wind whistle through the drafty slats._

_All in all, their escape lasted a week. A week of blessed freedom, of feet hurting from moving not from being shocked and frozen and burned, of gorging themselves on foods they’d never experienced before – sweet breads, cheeses, cured meats accidentally left out or taken from stores. In the garbage was a half eaten box of something brown and sweet-smelling, and each tried a piece, interested._

_Yuuri’s eyes lit up with wonder at the treat in his mouth, crunchy and chewy and sweet at the same time. His tongue had never experienced something so magical, and his whole body felt alight with glee from what he was eating. They scarfed down the whole pack, smearing “chocolate” all over their faces, and Yuuri thought he’d remember this moment forever, remember how this was the first time he’d felt truly happy in his life._

_The scientists found them as they got to the border of Switzerland and Austria. They tried to fly away, but they’d prepared for that, and Yuuri felt the chain wrap around his legs, felt them pull him in. He hit the ground hard, wriggling, and grasped at the chains, trying to see through the tears in his eyes._

_He couldn’t go back, not to that, please no-_

_Victor shrieked, sharp claws slicing through one of the men’s unprotected arm, and Yuuri managed to wriggle out as blood splattered the ground, but there were so many of them-_

_The man howled in pain, gripping his bloody arm, and he smacked Victor clean across the face. Victor went sprawling, and the man grabbed his hair, and Yuuri howled and ran right into him, knocking him back._

_It all happened so fast, Yuuri still can’t remember it completely. One minute he and Victor were fighting the man off, the next Victor was pointing to an oncoming train, if they could just catch up to it and hop on, maybe, maybe-_

_And then Victor fell, pushed by a zap of electricity from the men, and the tracks were so close, and there was blood, and an awful, animal shriek, and Yuuri screamed in horror, not even noticing that they closed in around them and bound his entire body._

“ _Vitya,” Yuuri screamed as they dragged him away, loading him up alone in the back of a truck away from the bloody mess on the tracks, “Vitya, Vitya, no, please, no, Vitya-”_

_He kept screaming Victor’s name, sobbing it and shrieking it again and again, breathing so fast he thought his heart might explode-_

“ _Vitya,_ Vitya! _”_

* * *

 

“Yuuri.”

Yuuri blinks slowly awake, wincing at the harsh light, nose wrinkling at the crust around his eyes. There’s the steady thrum of machinery, the _beep beep beep_ of medical equipment. His whole body feels heavy, sluggish, and there’s a slight sting around his right wrist, which is particularly hard to move.

“Yuuri, darling, are you awake?”

The voice is so soft, so tender. It rumbles, deep and soothing, strangely familiar. Comforting, like a warm blanket on a cold winter evening. He’s been in so much pain all his life, new voices each a shock of terror, not knowing what each unfamiliar voice is going to do to him. This voice, though, calms him. He doesn’t feel afraid.

He blinks his eyes open and stares deep into a bright blue sky.

Only, it’s not the sky, it’s a pair of blue eyes that shimmer with tears, and a pale face, and short silver hair, but he’d know that face anywhere-

“Vitya,” Yuuri croaks, voice scratchy from disuse, “Oh my god, _Vitya-_ ”

He surges forward, arms outstretched, and feels the stinging tug of a dozen little machines. Tears well at the corners of his eyes, images of medical machinery in the back of his mind, the burn of injections and bruises upon bruises from IVs in his arms.

“What are you doing to me?” Yuuri whimpers, eyes blurring with tears.

“Oh, love,” Victor sighs, soothingly, hand splaying gently over Yuuri’s chest. “I know you’re scared, but I’m healing you. The chip they had in, it was poisonous, so we’re helping your body out as you recover. Are you in pain anywhere?”

Yuuri sniffles blearily, focusing in on his body. He’s rarely ever _not_ been in pain, but strangely, now – it’s just his wrist, which he wriggles pitifully, lips trembling as he stares up at Victor.

“Okay,” Victor soothes, “Okay. I’ll get them to put some more numbing gel. Does that sound okay?”

Yuuri nods, still sniffling, tears falling from his eyes.

“You’re safe,” Victor says, “Really safe now, okay? I’m right here. I’ll never leave your side again.”

“This is a dream,” Yuuri whispers, shaking his head. “I’m going to wake up.”

“It’s not a dream,” Victor says, firm. His fingers reach up to caress Yuuri’s cheek, and Yuuri leans into the soft touch with a little hum. Victor is so much bigger than Yuuri remembers – of course, the last time he saw him, they were children. His hair is short, his body broad and healthy, the baby fat gone from his face and replaced by sharp angles and wariness.

He’s still so beautiful, though. His features are delicate, though there innocence has long gone from them, leaving him lovely and sharp as an ice sculpture. He doesn’t feel cold, though, not when he caresses Yuuri’s cheeks, presses their foreheads together.

“It’s been so long,” Yuuri sobs, “So, so long.”

“I know,” Victor’s voice cracks, “I know. But I’m here, now.”

“I thought you _died_ ,” Yuuri wails, thrashing against the tubes and machines and his own heavy body, “There was so much blood.”

Victor’s hands go to his shoulders, his arms, and he slips beside Yuuri on the bed to calm him down. They barely fit, the two of them, adults now – but Victor is so warm and soft and his nose nuzzles into Yuuri’s cheek.

“The train caught my wings,” Victor murmurs, voice cracking. “It… It tore them. Mangled them. There’s barely anything left. It’s,” he takes a deep, shuddering breath, “It’s how I pass for human so easily. How I can do the things I do.”

“How did you escape?” Yuuri whimpers, nuzzling in closer, whining that he can’t wrap his own wings and arms around Victor.

Victor laughs, humorlessly. “Luck. That’s it. They were going to euthanize me – what’s an avian without wings, right? Turn my body into some sick exhibition,” he shakes his head, swallowing down the break in his voice. “But someone underground wanted an avian, so a scientist who needed money dropped me off with him. It was – it was awful. He wanted me as a pet, kept in a cage, something to parade around to impress his friends. He beat me, just for fun, just because he could. He beat his wife, too, his kids, his dog…”

“Oh Vitya,” Yuuri murmurs, eyes welling up with fresh tears.

“He got greedy,” Victor snarls. “Wanted too many of us. Me, Georgi, Mila – we got sick of it, eventually, so banded together. We killed the bastard. Took his guns. Took his dog, too. His family kept his fortune, but we just wanted to be free. I’ve been trying to save avians like us – trying to find you ever since.”

“I couldn’t escape again,” Yuuri stammers, “I’m sorry, Vitya, I couldn’t stop them. I thought you were dead, there was no point in leaving, so I just let them hurt me again and again and again. I should have t-tried, I was in so much pain-”

“No, Yuuri,” Victor soothes, wrapping a comforting arm around his waist, cradling the back of Yuuri’s head. “No. Don’t think like that. You were so brave, enduring what you did. I’m so, so proud of you, but,” he lifts Yuuri’s chin, gently, so their eyes meet, red-rimmed and watery. “You’re free, now. I promise you. You’ll never be in pain again.”

He kisses Yuuri, then, lips soft and sweet – just a little peck, but that’s all it takes to calm the fear in Yuuri’s heart, just for a moment.

Victor goes bright red.

“I,” he stammers, “I mean, I, that was presumptuous, I’m sorry-”

“You can do it again,” Yuuri murmurs, still sluggish, one of the tubes pumping wonderful, sweet pain relief into him. His body is heavy, but his heart is light, the world around him calm for the first time in his life.

Victor smiles, eyes crinkling with warmth, and kisses him again. This time, it’s slower, deeper, though no less soft and tender.

Something wet presses against his hand, and Yuuri turns his head to see a fluffy poodle wagging its tail by the side of the bed, nose pressed into Yuuri’s fingers.

“That’s the dog,” Victor snorts.

“She’s wonderful,” Yuuri grins, dopily. “Everything is wonderful. Mm, I’m sleepy.” Fear grips him, suddenly, and he clutches Victor’s hand so hard his nails prick the skin, but Victor doesn’t move. “Will you stay with me? I can’t be alone when I wake up, please, I don’t want to be alone-”

“Of course,” Victor whispers, kissing Yuuri’s cheek tenderly. “I’ll stay with you every moment, I’ll be there right when you wake up, okay? Sleep, now, my darling. Sleep. You’re safe now.”

Yuuri closes his eyes again, settling back comfortably into the mattress, the fluffy pillows behind his head, Victor’s body cocooning him with sweet comfort. He’d forgotten what it was like to not be afraid, to not be in pain, and he lets Victor’s soft mantras carry him to sleep.

_You’re safe now._

_I’m with you, I’ll never leave you._

_I love you._


End file.
